Key witness excused from testifying in U.S. leaks case

Sergeant First Class Paul Adkins invoked his right against self-incrimination as he began answering questions at a proceeding to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to court-martial the 24-year-old Manning on charges including aiding the enemy, which carries life imprisonment.

Manning is charged with downloading massive data files from the military's classified network when he was a U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Iraq, and providing them to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

The defense has portrayed Adkins, at the time a master sergeant in charge of security at the facility where Manning worked, as someone who should have recognized the private's troubled emotional state and acted to revoke the security clearance that gave him access to classified U.S. documents.

Manning's attorney, David Coombs, argued that Adkins should not be excused because he was not under criminal investigation in the case, but the prosecution declined to grant him immunity to testify and he was excused.

A second intelligence analyst who worked with Manning, Warrant Officer 1 Kyle Balonek, also invoked his right against self-incrimination and was excused from testifying on Sunday. He was one of the most experienced analysts in the unit.

Coombs argued on Saturday that Manning had displayed warning signs of emotional instability before his alleged wrongdoing and struggled with his gender identity.

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